Lynda Barry Named Ringling College 2010 Commencement Speaker

Lynda Barry Named Ringling College 2010 Commencement SpeakerApril 13, 2010 - The Ringling College of Art and Design has named Lynda Barry, cartoonist and author, as the speaker for their 2010 commencement ceremony.

One of the most successful non-mainstream American cartoonists, Barry is perhaps best known for her weekly comic strip Ernie Pook's Comeek. Barry's cartoons often view family life from the perspective of pre-teen girls from the wrong side of the tracks – Arna (the sensitive, freckled observer) and the cousins with whom she lives; pig-tailed Marlys (gifted, exuberant, snarky, and spastic); and the older Maybonne (concerned with social justice, music, makeup, hairdos and boys) and Freddie (gay, sweet, bullied, fascinated with bugs and monsters); but she often ventures far afield from this, such as in her strips featuring a Beat Poet poodle named Fred Milton.

Barry is the writer and illustrator behind two recent graphic novels, One! Hundred! Demons! and The! Greatest! Of! Marlys! which were both named Comic Of The Year by The Comics Journal. Her comic strips have been in more than 50 newspapers in the U.S., as well as Esquire and Mother Jones magazines.